I
Lest I be misunderstood, I will say at the outset that I do not believe
in a God.
The belief in a God is still generally accepted, not because of the
existence of one, but for the reason that it is the easiest way to
account for our condition. But in the light of scientific discoveries
and demonstrations, such a belief is unfounded and utterly untenable
to-day. Yet the word "God," and even the word "Nature," must often be
used to describe that condition which the brain of man has not yet been
able to analyze fully and scientifically. One ridiculous conception of
God that is believed by a multitude of people, is that of a massive
being, sitting in a marble chamber studded with gold and lighted with
glistening crystals. Do those who believe in such a creature ever
consider him taking a bath--and in what? Or of eating his breakfast--and
of what it consists?
If there were a God, and the world were governed with stern justice,
tempered to our feeble intelligence, existence might become tolerable,
but as it is, with a so-called God "ruling above," the earth is an
abominable place and life a long series of terrifying torments. If I
were to advocate a belief, or faith, in a God, I would seek the
embodiment of those things diametrically opposite to the attributes of
the popular God of to-day. Such a creature is not worthy the sacrifice
of ourselves and our thoughts.
Let us examine and investigate the system and arrangement of the
world--that is, that portion of which we are a part and which so vitally
concerns us.
The result of our most extensive study and labor shows us that the
earth, after an illimitable duration of time, has gradually attained its
present peculiar development. In other words, Nature has taken millions
of years to produce the earth as it is now formed; and if it were made
particularly for human beings it is not yet completed, for we still find
spots, aye, vast areas, where human life is incapable of subsisting. The
climate is either too hot or too cold; there is too much water or too
little moisture; the means of cultivation are too meager or utterly
unobtainable.
In short, after eons of labor, Nature has failed to be able to present
to every one of us, for our habitation, a parcel of earth commodious and
comfortable enough to be perfectly desirable for life and its living.
Surely, if the earth were made for our benefit, Nature has been not only
a very poor provider, but a very thoughtless parent.
Some say that man is Nature's best product, that the earth was made for
us, that we are particularly selected by God, and that a certain race is
his chosen people. But that is not true. The Jews are no more God's
chosen people than the jay is his chosen bird, or the mosquito his
chosen insect.
It is not true that Nature particularly works for us--facts prove the
contrary.
Facts prove that we are nothing but an undesirable by-product, to make
our way and to live our life as best we can within a cruelly turbulent
space, imprisoned by invisible, impenetrable walls of limitation.
No, it is not true that our life is favored by Nature. After we build
our homes, make our cities and add improvements, what happens? Nature,
with her forceful winds, blows them down; her cruel storms and rising
floods wash them away as so much refuse, and a tremor of the earth
destroys not only our homes but ourselves also, leaving no traces of our
efforts, treasures and sacred ties.
Even as individuals we "curse God" for the shortcomings with which we
are afflicted. The exceedingly stout person, one who is "in his own way"
curses God for making him so stout. The thin person has a similar
grievance. Those who are too large and those who are too small are
equally dissatisfied. The shape of an eye, the curve of the mouth, a
blemish here, an impediment there, is the direct cause of poignant
embarrassment. Organs or dimensions too unsightly and unsatisfactory are
productive of continual worry and torment throughout our lives. The
blind, the deaf, the dumb and the crippled have forever a curse for God
upon their lips.
We inhabit the air, with a density of fifteen pounds to the square inch,
a mixture of dirt and water, in the same manner that the fish inhabits
the water and the worm the earth. Were we beings of a superior type,
Nature would have made us so versatile that we should be able to
accustom ourselves to any condition, and survive in any climate. But
despite all our improvements, despite all man's efforts to avoid and
escape the conditions of Nature, many of us freeze to death in winter
and become prostrate from the heat of summer. If it were true that the
earth were purposely made and existing for us there would be "no flowers
born to blush unseen and waste their sweetness on the desert air."
We, ourselves, scientists tell us, are the result of a long series of
evolutionary development. They tell us that Nature started with a single
cell of protoplasm, a single cell of living organism, and produced the
present human species after the life and death of an illimitable number
of forms through the stages of countless ages, not exempting those lives
from the fear, torture and misery that are still so essential a part of
the scheme of life. Why impose so cruel and wasteful a condition upon
those numberless billions that have lived before us, since nothing but
eternal death was gained by their existence?
Surely, Nature is a poor architect and builder, after taking so much
material and so much time, to make such an incomplete place for such an
outlandish form to rule and occupy. If we were given the same
opportunity (that is, you and I), with all the power and resources of
Nature, to build a habitable place, and mold a living something to
inhabit it, our results would be ten thousand times better than that
which circles the scope and boundary of our lives, with the
incomprehensible physical form with which we breathe and manifest life.
Truthfully, and without the slightest element of egotism, I should be
ashamed of my efforts were I to present as my handiwork nothing better
than the level and plane which Nature has attained.